The Eighth Castaway
by Sparki
Summary: A new castaway joins the group, resulting in a surprising discovery and a new romance
1. The New Arrival

_**THE EIGHTH CASTAWAY**_

_Author's note: I do not own the "Gilligan's Island" castaways. I am doing this for my own amusement. The only character I own (sort of) is Owen Lansing._

_A new castaway joins the group, resulting in excitement, disappointment, and true love when and where least expected. SLASH._

_Also, since Gilligan's first name is never mentioned on the show, I decided that his first name is Martin. _

One day on the island, Gilligan was going to the lagoon to fish, when he tripped over something. He looked down and discovered that the "something" he tripped over was a human body. A tall, muscular human body, face down, seemingly lifeless.

Gilligan's blood froze in his veins as he went to find his fellow castaways, running down the island like greased lightning.

"Skipper! Professor! Ginger! Mary Ann! Mr. and Mrs. Howell!" he yelled hysterically. "A body! There's a body! Over by the lagoon! A body!"

In the distance, Gilligan spied the Professor and the Skipper picking coconuts and came barreling toward them, crashing into the bulky mass of the Skipper, causing the portly captain to drop a coconut on his foot.

"Thanks a lot, Gilligan!" the Skipper growled. "Why don't you look where you're going?"

"There's a body over by the lagoon!" Gilligan sputtered. "A body!"

"I don't have time for nonsense, Gilligan!" the Skipper snapped. "Now why aren't you out there catching fish for lunch like I asked you?"

"Because there's a body by the lagoon."

"Oh, you probably just imagined it." the Skipper said.

"You have to believe me." Gilligan insisted. "I'm not crazy."

"Of course you're not crazy." the Professor said. "But what the Skipper is trying to say is, what with the extreme heat of a tropical climate coupled with the strain of being cast away on a deserted island, you may be having hallucinations."

"Oh, that's a relief." Gilligan said. "For a minute, I thought the skipper was telling me I was seeing things."

"Gilligan, that's what having hallucinations means." said the Professor

"Then I guess that's not such a relief."

Just then, Mary Ann came running toward the three male castaways at the coconut grove.

"You fellows will never believe this!" she exclaimed. "I went to take the dirty clothes to the lagoon to wash them and I saw a body. A man, lying face down."

"So, I guess Mary Ann is seeing things too." Gilligan said sarcastically.

With an exasperated sigh, the skipper followed Gilligan and Mary Ann to the lagoon, the Professor trailing behind.

"See?" Gilligan said, pointing to the prostrate figure.

"Suffering sea horses!" The Skipper exclaimed. "It really is a body."

At that moment, the figure twitched.

"He's alive!" yelled Gilligan, hope of being rescued rising within his heart.

"Of course I'm alive." said the man, grouchily and groggily, as he slowly rose to a sitting position. "Alive and well and marooned on some Godforsaken island in the back of Northwest Nowhere. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Owen Lansing."

The castaways got a good look at the handsome, muscular blond fellow. Somehow, he looked familiar, but no one could quite pinpoint where they had seen him, until a thought occurred to Gilligan. The neatly parted hair and civilian attire threw him, but all of a sudden, Gilligan knew who this man was. His face darkened.

"You're not any Owen Lansing." Gilligan spat. "You're Tongo! You're Tongo the Jungle Lord!"

"I'm _**not**_ Tongo." the guy said sarcastically. "I'm _**Owen**_."

"I've heard of the Tongo the Ape Man movies, but I never heard of any movies about an ape man named Owen." sneered Gilligan. This remark netted him laughter from Mary Ann and an elbow in the ribs from the Skipper.

"I'm the actor who _**played**_ Tongo the Jungle Lord." explained the handsome man, his tone somewhat cool. "Tongo was a character I played. _**I'm**_ the actor Owen Lansing."

"Well, that was some spot you put us all in, Tongo or Owen or Owen-Tongo or Tong-Owen or whatever you call yourself." Gilligan snarled.

"About that - Owen said sheepishly.

"It's a shame your heart isn't as beautiful as your face is handsome, Mr. Owen Tongo The Jungle Lord Lansing." Mary Ann sniffed.

Owen bristled.

"Just what do you mean by that remark, Missy?" he snapped. "I'm just as nice as the next fellow."

"Yeah." retorted Mary Ann. "You're such a nice guy that you take off in a helicopter and leave us stranded here on this island when you could have rescued us."

"Someone who would do that isn't a nice guy, Mary Ann." Gilligan put in.

The Skipper whipped off his captain's hat and whacked his first mate over the head with it.

"She's being sarcastic, Gilligan."

"Is that what she's doing?" Gilligan asked. "I thought she was saying something and meaning the opposite of what she said."

Owen stared at the ground.

"Listen, you guys." he said. "That was a stupid thing to do. I admit it. I don't know what I was thinking."

"You were thinking that you would leave us behind because you were afraid we'd blab about you being spooked by that gorilla and mess up your chances of being a big star!" Gilligan shot back. "That's what you were thinking."

"We all said we _**wouldn't**_ blab and you didn't listen." the Skipper said.

"Listen, you guys." Owen said insistently. "There is such a thing as being sorry."

"Yeah?" Gilligan retorted. "Well, there's also such a thing as 'too late'!"

Ginger and the Howells heard the commotion and they all wandered over to the lagoon to investigate.

"Look who was washed up on the shore of the lagoon." the Skipper stated.

"My word!" exclaimed Mr. Howell. "I recognize this fellow. That's that uncivilized Tarzan-type who terrorized all of us and broke my golf club!"

"And said he'd rescue us, but backed out at the last minute and left us stranded here on this island." added Mrs. Howell. "What appalling deportment."

"Not only that." said Gilligan. "It's bad manners, to boot."

"I'll say the fellow's deportment was appalling." Mr. Howell stated. "That was my favorite golf club he bit in half."


	2. Anyone can Make a Mistake

"Can't a guy get a break around here?" Owen pleaded.

"You had your break, Mr. Ape-Man Tongo Actor." said Ginger. "Your big break in Hollywood, all because you left us stranded."

"First of all, Miss Grant, my name is Owen Lansing." the handsome actor said stiffly.

"I don't care if your name is Leslie Howard." Ginger snorted. "If you had taken me with you, I could have starred as Tongo's sweetheart Janet in _**Tongo the Jungle Lord! **_Instead, Pinocchio's twin sister played Janet!"

"Hey!" Owen snapped. "Evelyn Gardner is a friend of mine, and she's a talented actress."

"Well, I bet she's absolutely wooden in the role of Janet." Ginger shot back.

"The second thing is," Owen said evenly, "like I said before, I did a stupid thing. If I had it to do over again, I would do it differently. I would take you guys with me."

"Well, you don't get to do it over." Ginger said. "So, the best thing is to do it right in the first place."

"What she said." Mary Ann said, pointing to the shapely redhead. "I mean, first you drag my friend to the cave and terrorize her -

"It was part of my role." protested the actor. "It was me-Tongo doing that, not me-Owen."

"Well, Ginger didn't know that at the time." charged Mary Ann. "Anyway, it was you-Owen who abandoned us after you said you'd rescue us, and that was more than stupid. It was selfish and cowardly."

"I made a mistake, okay?" Owen returned. "Everyone makes mistakes."

"Two plus two is five is a mistake, Mr. Owen Lansing." Gilligan snapped. "What you made was a really bad boo-boo."

Another whack on the head with the Skipper's hat for Gilligan.

Later that day, when the castaways were all at their huts going about their business, a brooding Owen Lansing, barefoot and in bathing trunks, was walking by the lagoon, his mind and heart a cloudy murk of sorrow and regret over having betrayed the castaways. He spotted the small raft the Professor had built for the castaways to ride around the lagoon on. He jumped on it and let himself drift.

Owen had floated to a nearby island and there he saw it. A canoe, seemingly abandoned. A thought crossed his mind as he positioned the raft close to the canoe, climbed into it, and hoisted the raft into it as well.

Meanwhile, back at their hut, the Skipper ordered Gilligan to take their raft and go to the other side of the island to pick some breadfruit for lunch.

"Is that rye, white, or whole-wheat breadfruit?" joked the red-shirted sailor.

"Never mind that, Gilligan!" barked the Skipper. "Just get going."

Gilligan ran to the lagoon to get the small raft only to find it missing. He tripped and fell in the lagoon.

"Skipper! Skipper!" he called as he ran back in the direction of his hut, his wet clothes and shoes making squishing noises.

"Gilligan!" the Skipper barked. "Why are you all wet? I didn't ask you to go swimming. I asked you to take the raft to the other side of the island and pick some breadfruit for lunch."

"That's pretty hard to do when you don't have a raft."

"What do you mean, we don't have a raft?" the Skipper snapped. "Of course we have a raft."

"I thought we had one too, until I went to the lagoon to ride on it and saw that it was gone."

Gilligan and the Skipper trudged to the lagoon.

"See, Skipper? No raft."

The skipper let out a pained groan.

"Aw, coconuts!" he exclaimed. "That thief must have made off with it!"

Gilligan jumped a foot in the air.

"A thief?" he asked in a fearful tone. "There's a thief on the island?"

"Yes." the Skipper said. "A six-foot-tall thief with big muscles."

"You mean Owen?"

"No, Gilligan, I mean Mr. Universe." the Skipper said sarcastically. "Of course I mean Owen." With those words, he bopped the red-shirted sailor with his hat, and the two wandered over to the lagoon, both wondering what to do.

Mary Ann happened by.

"Hi, Gilligan." she said. "Hi, Skipper. What's going on?"

"Mr. Six-feet-of-muscles-and-suntan has taken it upon himself to make off with the raft the Professor built for us." the Skipper blustered. "It was a small, light raft, too small to travel great distances."

"Like off the island." Gilligan chimed in. The Skipper shot him a dirty look.

"But it was good for, like, getting to the other side of the island and stuff like that," the Skipper continued, "and now, that musclebound ape-man actor went and confiscated it."

"And on top of that." said Gilligan. "Owen stole it."

The Skipper elbowed his first mate in the side, then belted him over the head with his hat yet a third time.

"So, he's a thief twice over." Gilligan said indignantly. "He stole my fruit when he was Tongo, and now, he stole our raft when he was Owen."

"Hmph!" Mary Ann said acidly. "Leave it to Mr. Owen Tongo Lansing to steal things. It's what he does best."

The dark-haired farm beauty tossed her head so that her bunches danced, and she walked off in search of the rest of the castaways.

Mary Ann promptly returned with the rest of her islandmates.

"Whatever is the matter, dear child?" asked Mrs. Howell. "You have the same expression on your face that Thurston gets when the Dow Jones drops."


	3. An Opportunity for Owen

"That overmuscled baboon who washed up on the shore of the lagoon earlier today went and stole our raft." Mary Ann wailed.

"That is just appalling!" Mr. Howell sputtered. "And what's more, it's just plain rude!"

"I absolutely agree with you, Thurston." Mrs. Howell said.

"I swear!" exclaimed Mr. Howell. "If that bargain-basement Tinseltown Tarzan dares to steal any more of our personal possessions, I _**will**_ separate his Tar from his Zan." he whipped out his special cane. "And this time, I'm not joking around." he took off the top of his walking stick to reveal a sharp sword.

"Some people have some nerve." sniffed Ginger. "That Owen Lansing thinks he can get away with anything just because he's a handsome movie star. I'm a movie star, and I'm pretty decent-looking and I never stole anything - except in this one movie I was in, _**Cat Burglar Katrina from Kalamazoo.**_ I had the title role."

In the distance, Gilligan saw a speck bobbing on the surface of the lagoon.

"I see something!" he hollered. "I think it's a boat!"

"Oh, Gilligan, you've been out in the sun too much!" the Skipper scoffed. "You're seeing things."

The speck drew closer.

"Well, then the thing I'm seeing looks like a canoe." the red-shirted sailor replied.

The distant shape grew closer and closer and became the colorful canoe and the blond actor.

"It's Tongo!" exclaimed Gilligan. "I mean, it's Owen! And he's got a canoe!"

"We're going to be rescued!" squealed Mary Ann delightedly.

"I won't have to miss the social season." stated Mrs. Howell.

"I can go back to Hollywood!" gasped an excited Ginger. "Hey, maybe I can play Janet in _**Bride of Tongo the Jungle Lord. **_I can be the best Janet Quinn the movies have ever seen, unlike that Evelyn Gardner." She said the other actress's name with extreme distaste.

Owen Lansing swung his muscular legs over the edge of the canoe and clambered out, dragging the raft next to him.

"I was floating out on the lagoon on this nifty little raft." he said. "And I found this canoe on one of the other islands not too far from here. We could paddle to Hawaii and get off this island."

"Owen, you're a genius." the Skipper said. "If you were a girl, I'd kiss you."

The actor's face reddened.

"I'm flattered, Skipper." he said. "But you're not my type."

"Lucky for you, you're a boy!" Gilligan said to Owen.

"You're such a genius that compared to you, the Professor has the IQ of bacteria." Ginger said.

"Hey, now." the Professor protested. "Let's not get carried away."

"Good goin', Owen." Gilligan said, slapping the male movie star on the back. The sailor and the actor both laughed. "Hey, that rhymes." the former said. "Hey, I'm a poet. And I didn't even know it."

The Skipper gave his first mate yet another whack with his hat.

"This little poetry reading is over, Gilligan." he said sarcastically.

"On behalf of my fellow castaways and myself," said Mary Ann. "we're sorry we misjudged you so, Owen." Mary Ann said. The other castaways agreed.

"Think nothing of it, guys." the actor said with a huge smile. "Like I said, anyone can make a mistake."

The seven castaways plus Owen climbed into the canoe, but only seven could fit comfortably.

"You guys paddle toward civilization." Owen suggested. "You've been here longer than I have. I'll stay behind and you can send for me."

Gilligan's breath caught in his chest.

"You would really do that for us?"

Owen nodded.

"You can bet on that."

The actor felt a warm glow of satisfaction that he had finally earned back his fellow castaways' trust and friendship.

Just as the castaways were about to seat themselves in the canoe, footsteps thundered.

"Look!" Gilligan pointed, and it became apparent that everyone was surrounded by big, strong, fierce-looking native men in warrior garb.

"Look what you've done, you musclebound lummox!" Mr. Howell snapped, turning to face Owen. "You've brought natives back to attack us." Then, to his wife. "I knew he was a Yale man."

"They could be headhunters." Gilligan yelped.

"Calm down, Gilligan." the Skipper said. "Don't lose your head."

"I wish you wouldn't say that, Skipper." whimpered Gilligan.

The biggest, strongest one of all, decked out in tribal paint and an elaborate headdress, presumably the chief, sputtered something in his language.

"He's saying that he is very upset that we have stolen his mode of transport." the Professor translated.

"That's crazy." Gilligan protested. "We don't have a mode of transport. All we have is a canoe."


	4. An Actor Gone Ape

Owen stood up straight and tall, took a deep breath, and began pounding his bare chest and giving out with Tongo's trademark jungle cry.

"What's he doing?" whispered Mary Ann.

"Tongo's back." murmured a bewildered Gilligan.

The chief gave out a startled cry of his own and the rest of the natives squirmed nervously.

Owen stomped the ground and grunted.

"Tongo no like strangers on his island." he exclaimed in a guttural, uncivilized tone. "Tongo want you get off island."

The chief drew his spear and pointed it straight at Owen.

"I can't bear to look." moaned Mary Ann, covering her eyes.

Owen grabbed the spear from the chief and snapped it in half, then beat his chest and hollered once more.

_**"Tongo say, get off island!"**_

He jumped around, making grunting noises. His eyes darted around until he spied some fallen coconuts by a nearby palm tree.

He picked up the large, hard fruits and began furiously lofting them at the group of natives. One just barely missed the chief's head.

The chief let out a frightened yell and jumped into the canoe, his tribesmen following suit, and paddled away until the canoe with the natives was a small dot in the distance.

"Wow, Owen." said Ginger. "Too bad there are no Academy Awards on this island. You'd win Best Actor by a landslide."

"Just scaring those fierce natives away so they wouldn't hurt any of you is reward enough."

"A splendid performance, Mr. Lansing." said Mr. Howell. "Bravo!"

"Thanks, Mr. Howell." the actor said. "But Mr. Lansing is my father. Call me Owen."

"Very well, Sir Owen."

The actor laughed.

"No, sir. No 'sir,' just Owen."

"I'll see to that." The wealthy gentleman gently tapped the thespian's head with his sword cane. "I dub thee Sir Owen, friend of castaways."

More laughter from Owen Lansing.

"You are a most humorous fellow, Mr. Howell."

"And a funny guy, as well." Gilligan said.

"On behalf of the group, I want to thank you very much for what you did and what you intended to do." said the Professor.

"Believe me, Professor." said Owen. "The pleasure was all mine, and it was the least I could do after what transpired last time I was on this island."

"I can see why you won all those Academy Awards for your performance as Tongo in _**Tongo the Jungle Lord,**__**Tongo the Jungle Lord Returns, and Revenge of Tongo the Jungle Lord." **_Ginger said, winking at Owen.

"It seems that Owen Lansing is a very skilled thespian." said the Professor.

"Yeah," said Gilligan. "And he's some actor, too."

"I must say, Sir Owen." Mr. Howell stated. "You give a most convincing impression of a grunting barbarian."

"Tongo's not a grunting barbarian." Owen replied indignantly, in defense of his signature role. "He's a grunting jungle lord. Now, the savages who took the canoe, those are barbarians."

"So much for getting off the island, I guess." Mary Ann said."

"Well, I'm sorry about that." Owen said.

"No matter." said the Skipper. "Your heart was in the right place. I guess we were all wrong about you. You're an all-right guy after all."

Mary Ann looked the ape-man actor up and down.

"You're more than all right." she murmured half under her breath. "You put the _**oh**_ in Owen."


	5. Welcome to the Castaway Club

"Pardon?" asked Owen.

Mary Ann blushed to the roots of her hair.

"I said, the performance you gave was absolutely glowing."

Now it was Ginger's turn to give Owen the once-over.

"So, what brings you back around these parts, Owen?" the redheaded actress asked, her tone flirtatious and seductive, ignoring the menacing stares she was receiving from the brunette country beauty.

"Well, Ginger," Owen said with an exasperated sigh. "It started because I was becoming disheartened with the way my career was going."

Ginger's eyes widened in astonishment.

"What?" she gasped. "Owen Lansing, how can you say that?"

"With my voice." Owen laughed and flashed a dazzling smile.

"But - " faltered Ginger. "You're a star."

"That's right, Owen." Mary Ann piped up. "You're like Ginger Grant, only with muscles and pants and a deep voice and a five o'clock shadow."

Ginger looked daggers at Mary Ann while Owen waved his hand in a gesture of dismissal.

"Oh, please." he said disgustedly. "I'm a star because of my portrayal of Tongo the Jungle Lord in the Tongo movies and of Sly Jenkins in the Sly Jenkins westerns."

"So, what's bad with that?" Ginger asked, arranging her body in the most alluring pose she could think of while Mary Ann folded her arms and glowered.

"What's bad with that?" he echoed, doing stretching exercises with his arms. "What's bad with that is, everyone expects me to either swing from vines dressed in a loincloth or swagger around a frontier settlement in chaps and spurs and a ten-gallon hat, shooting a pistol and flirting with saloon dancers and calling everyone 'pardner'." he cleared his throat. "It's like, they see Tongo. They see Sly. They don't see _**me**_. They don't see _**Owen Lansing**_. _**Tongo **_swings from vines and pounds his chest and hollers. _**Sly **_wears a cowboy hat and shoots a pistol and rides a horse and calls everyone 'pardner.' But Owen Lansing - why, given the chance, Owen Lansing could play King Arthur, or Hamlet, or Romeo."

"Then you'd be Rome-Owen." Gilligan stated, and was rewarded with laughter from his new friend, the Howells, and the two island beauties, and an umpteenth whack on the head with the Skipper's hat.

"So, you took a vacation because you wanted to escape the frustrations of being typecast." said Ginger.

"Exactly." Owen said. "I took a trip to Hawaii. While I was there, they had these sightseeing canoes you could rent, and I rented one. The weather was beautiful, I was enjoying myself, and all of a sudden, wouldn't you know it, a storm starts brewing, my canoe hits a rock, I fall out and hit my head on the rock."

"Good heavens!" gasped Mary Ann. "Are you all right?"

This was a question all the other castaways followed suit in asking.

"Oh, I'm fine." the actor said with a smile.

He can say that again. Thought Ginger. Is he ever fine.

They don't come any finer, thought Mary Ann

And how. thought Gilligan, much to his amazement, having never thought of himself as being capable of such thoughts.

"Well, that's wonderful." said the Skipper.

"But it appears I'm not having much luck with canoes today." the actor said darkly. "The canoe I was riding in was swept out to sea."

"Does this mean you have to pay for it?" Gilligan wanted to know.

"Oh, Gilligan, stop that." growled the Skipper, jabbing his first mate in the side with his elbow yet again.

Owen ruefully shook his blond head.

"I'm afraid it means something much worse than that."

"What could be worse than that?" Gilligan asked.

"I'm afraid I'm stuck here on the island." Owen answered gravely. "I'm now a - a - "

"Go on, Owen." Mary Ann urged gently. "Say it."

"A castaway." Owen said in a faltering voice. "I'm a castaway."

"Well, you're in very good company." said Gilligan. "We're all castaways too."

Mary Ann smiled up at the handsome Hollywood muscleman, aware her eyes were warm and sparkly.

"Welcome to the Castaway Club, Owen."


	6. Owen's Orientation on the Island, pt 1

Now it was the glamorous redhead's turn to glare at the Kansas cutie.

She wondered what made Mary Ann think that a fellow as handsome and worldly as Owen would be interested in the likes of her? He was an actor, after all. His world was the same as Ginger's. They even know some of the same actors and actresses in Hollywood. When was the last time Little Miss Cornhusker with the pigtails and pinafores had ever been to a Hollywood party or an Academy Awards ceremony?

Ginger was fond of Mary Ann and looked upon her as the younger sister she never had, and Mary Ann was very nice and sweet and pretty, and Ginger could see where she'd captivate a farm boy's heart, but she also thought the sky would rain jelly beans before a guy like Owen would prefer her type to a glamorous, sophisticated woman like Ginger herself.

"Couldn't you swim back to Hawaii?" Gilligan asked of the new castaway.

"Oh, stop that, Gilligan!" retorted the Skipper, giving his first mate a light, playful punch on the shoulder.

The newcomer shook his head.

"Too far." he said.

"One would think, with muscles like that - " Gilligan trailed off, and it was then that the slim sailor with the red shirt realized he had been staring at Owen's physique all this time.

_**That's not like me**_. Gilligan thought.

"I'm flattered." Owen said with a laugh. "But I couldn't swim all that way. Even with these muscles." He flexed his biceps.

"Wow!" Gilligan said in amazement as he felt the cannonball of muscle. "Those muscles are iron-hard." He swallowed hard. "They're so iron-hard, they're harder than iron."

Laughter from Owen and from the rest of the castaways while the slender sailor's heart became a kaleidoscope of feelings he couldn't explain.

"Nope." Owen said. "Looks like I'm going to be here for a while, at least."

"Well, then it's settled." said Mary Ann, oblivious to Ginger's icy stare and Gilligan's remarks. "Now, let's get _**you**_ settled."

"He can have my hammock." Gilligan said eagerly. "Seeing as he used it last time he was here."

Gilligan began imagining watching Owen pump iron. His face burning, he whisked this idea from his mind, bewildered as to where he was getting such thoughts all of a sudden.

"Maybe you could room with us." Ginger said.

"Funny." said Mary Ann coolly. "I had the same idea.

"A Howell always makes generous gestures in welcoming a new friend." stated Mr. Howell. "It's the Howell code of conduct. Therefore, Sir Owen can have our hut."

"Marvelous idea, Thurston." Mrs. Howell said.

"I have an idea." declared the Skipper. "Why doesn't our new friend Owen bunk in with the Professor?"

"The Professor?" the two castaway beauties asked in unison, disappointment in their voices.

"The Professor?" echoed Gilligan, just as disappointed.

"Of course." said the Skipper. "I mean, it's only fair. He's the only one of us who doesn't have a roommate."

"I guess you're right." said Mary Ann.

_**I guess the Professor's right**_. Gilligan thought. _**But sometimes, it's no fair that you have to be fair.**_ "Thank you, guys." Owen said.

"You're entirely welcome, Sir Owen." said Mrs. Howell.

Suddenly, the new castaway frowned and his body stiffened.

"Aw, nuts."

He slammed his left fist into his right hand in a gesture of frustration.

"We have nuts on the island, Owen." said Gilligan. "Coconuts, macadamia nuts. Want some? I can show you where the macadamia trees grow."

"Cut that out, Gilligan!" grumbled the Skipper, slinging a fatherly arm around the sailor's thin shoulder .

Owen looked at Gilligan, who was startled into looking back at him. Their eyes held for a second.

"You're a funny guy, Gilligan." the actor said, laughing. "No, that's just an expression. I was upset because I just remembered I left my belongings at the hotel in Hawaii."

"Why, you can share anything of ours you want." said The Professor.

"Thanks." the new arrival said. "But I had some of my weights in my suitcase."

"You don't have to wait for your suitcase." said Gilligan grandly. "You heard what the Professor said. "You can share everything we have, whatever you need. So, what's there to wait for?"

A laughing Owen smiled broadly.

"No, no, no." he said. "_**Weights**_. The kind you lift for exercise."

"Oh, like barbells and dumbbells and that sort of thing." Gilligan said.

"Exactly." Owen answered, doing some more stretching exercises. "I had some weights in my suitcase."

"Well, maybe the Professor can make you some weights and barbells and dumbbells out of bamboo and rocks."

The Skipper sighed in exasperation.

"You're a dumbbell, Gilligan!" he remarked, smiling and shaking his silvering head slowly from side to side. "And you've got rocks in your head!"


	7. Friends, Fish and Feminine Wiles

"Why?" Gilligan said, smarting at the Skipper's remark. "The Professor made homemade weights for that surfer guy that time."

"Oh, Gilligan, that's different." the Skipper answered.

"How is that different?" Gilligan wanted to know. "I mean, muscles are muscles, aren't they?"

The Skipper smiled indulgently at the young sailor. He was a nice guy but he had so much to learn.

"Gilligan, we're talking about a movie star here." he explained patiently.

"So?" Gilligan shot back. "I don't see any difference between movie-star muscles and regular muscles."

The Skipper sighed and forced himself to maintain his patient tone. Yes, Gilligan was an OK guy but sometimes he could be so exasperating.

"A fellow like Owen is probably used to very sophisticated exercise equipment." he answered. "He's probably a member of some of the fanciest health spas in Hollywood."

Owen walked over and draped a well-muscled arm around Gilligan, who thought his heart would burst out of his chest.

"Actually, your little buddy here's got a great idea, Skipper." the actor said. "Let's get the Professor to make me some weights."

"I'll get to working on them after lunch." the Professor said.

Gilligan and his new friend stayed by the lagoon to fish while the rest of the castaways went to prepare for lunch. The Professor and the Howells set the table while the Skipper and Mary Ann fixed beverages.

"Gee." said Mary Ann, as she mixed creamy coconut milk with finely mashed tropical fruits and poured the mixture into eight empty coconut shells. "Imagine, being marooned on the island with a celebrity."

A look of puzzlement crossed the broad, ruddy face of the silver-haired sea captain.

"Well, Ginger has been cast away on this island with us for years." he said, passing her a banana. "She's a celebrity."

"I know." said Mary Ann as she peeled and sliced the banana. "But let's face it, Skipper. Ginger doesn't look anything like Owen." She delicately placed a banana slice on each coconut-shell cup as a garnish.

"I know." said the Skipper. "And I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Speak of the red-headed devil." murmured Mary Ann.

In sashayed the fire-haired movie beauty in her fanciest gown, a confection of pale green sateen trimmed with emerald-green sparkles. Her hair was piled on top of her head and secured with sparkling green crystal barrettes, and she wore maraschino-red lip gloss, an emerald necklace and an exotic perfume that the Professor concocted from frangipani blossoms.

"Hey." said the Skipper appreciatively. "It's the lady in green."

The Skipper always knew Ginger was gorgeous, but this was the first time that that fact hit him full in the face. For the first time in all the years they had been cast away, he was seeing her less as just one of their group and more as a beautiful woman.

Ginger laughed.

"Green goes well with red hair." she said. "I read that in a beauty and fashion magazine back in Hollywood."

"Hey, now, Ginger." said the Skipper. "You didn't have to get all dressed up for us."

"Well," said Ginger innocently. "I guess I was just feeling fancy today."

Mary Ann swallowed hard. What **_was_** with all the fanciness? This wasn't a wedding reception or a Christmas dinner or anything like that. It was plain old everyday lunch.

"Feeling fancy, my foot." she snorted under her breath.

A cold, leaden mass settled in the pit of the country girl's stomach as she realized the probable reason her Hollywood glamourpuss friend was going to all those pains. Well, she'd show Miss Tinseltown that two could play at that game.

Mary Ann popped into the girls' hut and came out dressed in her nicest party dress - a festive-looking affair with a red top and a red-and-white candy-striped skirt and sleeves - with her hair styled in the same manner as Ginger's. She had also borrowed Ginger's red lip gloss and frangipani perfume, and a crystal heart pendant shimmered against her neck.

"What are you supposed to be?" Ginger asked snidely, taking in Mary Ann's confectionary-looking attire. "A candy mint or a breath mint?"

Mary Ann jumped back as if stung. This was so not like her friend, so not like the woman she thought of as the big sister she never had.

"Oh, it's you, Ginger." Mary Ann shot back. "With all that green you have on, I thought we were being invaded by a giant clump of seaweed."

The Professor had overheard this exchange and stood stock-still in shock.

_**What on earth has gotten into sweet, pretty little Mary Ann to make her act this way? **_He wondered. _**This isn't like her at all. Even Ginger isn't normally given to such venomously sarcastic remarks."**_

Before either of the castaway beauties could say another word, the slim sailor and the well-muscled actor came trudging into the hut, each carrying a basket filled to bursting with fish, clams, crabs and crayfish.

"Hey, little buddy." the Skipper commented. "Looks like you and Tongo over there were a couple of very busy fellows."

"Yes." Owen replied. "Gilligan and I caught ourselves a nice little seafood assortment."

"Yeah." Gilligan piped up. "And we caught quite a mess of fish, too."


	8. Owen's Orientation on the Island, pt 2

Gilligan and Owen handed their baskets of fish and shellfish to Mary Ann.

"I hope you like seafood, Owen." said the Skipper.

"And fruit." Mary Ann added.

"Oh, he does like fruit." Gilligan put in, remembering how he had walked into his hut that time all those years back to find that his fruit bowl had been raided.

"Mmm-mmm." the handsome muscleman-actor said enthusiastically. "I'm crazy about seafood and fruit." he smacked his full, rosy lips. "Seafood and fruit are two of the tastiest and most healthful types of food going. They help keep the muscles strong and hard."

Owen struck a bodybuilder pose as the island beauties squealed in girlish rapture and the sailor in the red shirt stood there pop-eyed and slack-jawed.

"OK, girls." said the Skipper, a bit more harshly than he intended. "Enough of that. Let's put our eyes back in our heads and finish getting ready for lunch."

Gilligan sighed inwardly in relief that the Skipper didn't catch him looking at the new castaway. He couldn't begin to think of how he'd explain that.

"Fresh fish!" yelled Ginger, and all the castaways came to the table. Ginger seated herself on Owen's left.

Bristling slightly, Mary Ann sat on his right and picked up a coconut shell full of the rich, creamy, prettily-colored beverage she had whipped up.

"Coconut-mango-banana blasts for everyone."

She slid the cup over to Owen in a barkeep slide while Ginger rolled her eyes.

"New castaways first, pardner." she said softly, winking at Owen. _**Especially if the new castaway is male, and gorgeous, and has big muscles**_. She continued in her mind.

_**Pardner? **_Ginger thought, outraged. _**I'll give her, pardner.**_

"That is exactly how Miss Marlene, the barmaid at the Lone Star Saloon, served drinks to Sly Jenkins in the Sly Jenkins movies." the actor said with a smile.

_**I could have been Miss Marlene**_. Ginger thought. _**If we weren't marooned on this island I could have been Miss Marlene instead of that blasted Evelyn Gardner playing the role. I could have been Miss Marlene and gotten to kiss Owen, and then, off-screen, who knows?**_

"The first thing I'm going to do when and if we get off the island is go to the nearest revival house and see a Sly Jenkins movie." Mary Ann said, smiling back at him.

Ginger sighed and passed the beverages to the rest of the castaways, then took one for herself, thinking that if Little Miss Kansas Cutie didn't stop throwing herself at Owen, she would be wearing one of those drinks before lunchtime was over.

"It's the strangest thing." the male movie star stated, heartily swigging the sweet, fruity concoction. "Fate punished me for the way I treated you guys the first time on this island, when I was studying for the role of Tongo."

Mrs. Howell tossed her head dismissively.

"Don't give it another thought, Sir Owen." she said, delicately forking a piece of fish into her mouth. "Let's let bygones be bygones."

"She's right, Owen." said Mary Ann. "You made up for it and all is forgiven." She patted him reassuringly on a broad, t-shirted shoulder, seemingly oblivious to Ginger's dirty look and Gilligan's wistful expression. "We're all friends now."

"You all may have forgiven me, but some power or force or entity did not." Owen continued. "I stupidly left you castaways all stranded to pursue my own goals and interests, and all this time later, I became a castaway myself."

"Aw, shucks, Owen." said Gilligan. "Being a castaway isn't all that bad."

"Especially when you've got friends." the Skipper said.

"Oh, indubitably." chimed in the Professor. "Friendship is very beneficial to one's well-being."

"What he said." interjected Gilligan, pointing to the Professor.

"You don't understand." said Owen in a worried tone of voice. "There's a new Tongo movie in the works." He bit into a pineapple wedge.

"So I heard." Ginger said flirtatiously while Mary Ann cleared her throat.

"_**Bride of Tongo the Jungle Lord**_." said Mary Ann, a twinge arrowing through her heart as she watched the actress wink at the actor. "It's supposed to be the one where Tongo re-enters civilization and marries Janet."

"That's right." said Owen. "How does a sweet little country girl like you keep up with Hollywood's latest developments?"

"I heard about it on the radio." Mary Ann answered, glowing with pleasure. Furtively, she shot a triumphant glance at a pained-looking Ginger.

"That's where my troubles may be beginning." Owen said gloomily. "You see, if I don't get off the island soon, my career may be in peril."

The Skipper put on the radio.

"Some background entertainment." he said grandly."

"So much for the financial news." a man's voice announced over the airwaves.

"Oh, drat!" Mr. Howell thumped a fist on the tabletop. "Drat and double drat! I missed the stock market report. _**Triple **_drat."

"Now, here are the latest and juiciest fruits from the Tinseltown grapevine." came the smooth voice of another newscaster, this one female.

"My favorite part of the news!" exclaimed Ginger.

"Divinely handsome actor and muscleman Owen Lansing, who has set many a girl's heart aglow as the leopard-leotarded jungle man Tongo and as fearless cowboy Sly Jenkins, has been reported missing at sea since vacationing in Hawaii." the woman's voice continued.

"Wow, Owen." hollered Gilligan. "A radio news story all about you."

All the castaways, save for Owen, shushed the boyish sailor.

"Unfortunately," continued the voice-over, "the timing was just terrible, because the upcoming Tongo adventure, _**Bride of Tongo the Jungle Lord, **_is due to start filming fairly shortly. Gordon Crane is in talks to take over the lead role in the aforementioned film if Mr. Lansing isn't located in time."

Owen gasped and nearly knocked his drink over.

"Gordon Crane is going to be replacing me in the role of Tongo?" he exploded. "_**Gordon Crane**_? What makes that pathetic waste of muscles think _**he **_can portray Tongo?"

"Who's Gordon Crane?" Mary Ann asked through a mouthful of crayfish.

"None of your business." Ginger mouthed at her, then turned to the newcomer.

"I've heard of Gordon Crane." Ginger said. "He's the actor and bodybuilder who played the lead in the _**Marco Marino, Space Hero**_ movies."

"Gordon Crane is a stiff, graceless, walking beef chunk with all the charm of an acne pimple and all the acting ability of a leaf." Owen said acidly, viciously cracking a crab claw as if he were breaking the mentioned actor's neck.

"Something tells me that our new friend Owen doesn't much like this Gordon Crane fellow." said Gilligan.

The Skipper tousled his first mate's hair affectionately.

"Like you almost had to be the Professor to figure that out."

Owen looked pointedly at the slim sailor.

"Actually, Gilligan, that's where you're wrong." he said evenly. "Your new friend Owen _**can't stand **_this Gordon Crane fellow."


	9. Hollywood Gossip

"But why?" asked the professor. "Why all the animosity toward this gentleman?"

"Believe me, Professor." Owen replied tartly. "Gordon is no gentleman."

"So, what happened, Sir Owen?" Mrs. Howell asked. "Why do you have these hard feelings toward Gordon?"

"It started when we were sixteen and he beat me out in the Mr. Teenage Ohio contest." Owen said, spearing a piece of fish.

"Gee, Owen." Gilligan said. "Didn't anyone tell you it's not nice to be a sore loser?"

"Gilligan!" exclaimed the skipper.

"Really." said Mrs. Howell disapprovingly. "Somebody needs to go rent some manners."

"It's not like that, Gilligan." Owen sighed. "It's not the fact that Gordon won instead of me. That, I can take. It's the fact that Gordon won because he cheated. He applied bronzing gel to his body before the contest and that wasn't allowed. I took weeks of sunbaths to get my golden glow. And the real pain is, Gordon convinced the judges that I was the one who used bronzer, and I ended up getting disqualified."

"The nerve of that Gordon Crane!" Mary Ann fumed. "That's just despicable!"

"Yeah." said Gilligan "And mean!"

"You want to hear mean?" Owen sputtered. "Gordon almost aced me out of the part of Tongo in _**Revenge of Tongo the Jungle Lord **_simply by virtue of the fact that he was dating the producer's niece."

"Why, that's terrible!" Mary Ann gasped, patting the new castaway's hand.

"Anyone knows you make a much better Tongo than Gordon." Ginger said in her sexiest voice, caressing his shoulder.

"Tell me about it." Owen snapped. "I saw Gordon's screen test. He portrayed Tongo like an - an overgrown monkey instead of like the strong, masculine jungle lord he's supposed to be." he made a disgusted face. "Gordon was absolutely wooden in the cave scene with Janet. It was like Evelyn Gardner was being kissed by a cigar-store Indian."

_**And to think, if I wasn't stuck on this island, I could have played Janet**_. Ginger thought. She had been terrified the night "Tongo" tried to make advances toward her in the cave, but when she found out that he was, in fact, an actor and then looked back on what transpired, she had to admit the whole thing was kind of sexy. She tried not to think of the possibility that life could have ended up imitating cinema.

"Lucky for me, Gordon broke out in a rash from the wax depilatory they used on him to make his body smooth for the part of Tongo." Owen said.

Ginger and Mary Ann remembered Owen's satiny limbs and chest displayed in the skimpy leopard-print garment he wore as Tongo. He sure hadn't needed any depilatory.

"Lucky for the movie too." Ginger said.

"Right you are, Ginger." Owen stated. "That's what the whole cast and crew of _**Revenge of Tongo **_had been saying. And they're right, also. Fans far and wide associate me with the character of Tongo the Jungle Lord. As far as moviegoers are concerned, I _**am **_Tongo. Period." He thumped his chest with his fist and gave the jungle call. "Me, Tongo." he said in his jungle-lord voice.

"You sure are." Gilligan said. "Those days on the island, you were such a great Tongo that for a while, I thought you _**were **_Tongo."

An exasperated snort from the Skipper, and laughter and a wink from Owen, which elicited a happy little shiver from Gilligan.

"There you go." said the golden-haired thespian with a winning smile. "_**That's**_ an _**actor**_."

"You know it." Ginger said, sliding an arm around Owen's waist, only to drop it when Mary Ann kicked her ankle under the table.

"And speaking of Owen Lansing." the female voice-over on the radio continued. "Here's a delightfully romantic little tidbit of news." The newscaster sighed. "According to the latest Tinseltown scuttlebutt, at the time Mr. Lansing left for Hawaii, he and Evelyn Gardner, the exotic raven-haired beauty who co-starred with him as journalist Janet Quinn in the Tongo movies and as barmaid Miss Marlene in the Sly Jenkins films, had a thing going."


	10. More Hollywood Gossip

"A thing going?" Gilligan echoed, his voice a disheartened squeak.

"A thing going?" Mary Ann gasped in disappointment.

"A thing going?" Ginger asked, a quaver in her voice. "With Evelyn Gardner?"

Owen sat bolt upright.

"Let me make one thing as clear as crystal." he declared, clearing his throat. "_**Tongo and Janet **_have a thing going. _**Sly Jenkins and Miss Marlene **_have a thing going. Evelyn Gardner and I do not, never did, and never will have _**anything**_ going. That gossip columnist is lying through her teeth. Evelyn Gardner is not my type. She and I are friends, but I don't like her _**that**_ way."

"What a prevaricator." The professor stated.

"Yeah." said Gilligan. "And she's also a liar."

"Don't worry, Owen." The Skipper said. "These gossip people will say anything. It's all a publicity stunt."

"They can call it a publicity stunt, but I have my own word for it." Owen said vehemently. "I call it a pack of lies." He turned to the shapely redhead.

"For what it's worth, Ginger." he said. "I think you would have made a far better Janet Quinn and a far better Miss Marlene the Barmaid than Evelyn Gardner could ever hope to be."

"Thank you." said Ginger, smiling her prettiest at him.

"And there is no way that Evelyn Gardner is as pretty as Ginger." said The Skipper. "You can take the most beautiful beauties in Hollywood, and none of them are as gorgeous as Ginger."

"Evelyn and Ginger are different types." said Owen. "Although it's the weirdest thing. Hollywood scuttlebutt has it that Evelyn had some kind of a breakdown and tried to impersonate Ginger Grant."

Ginger nearly choked on a piece of pineapple.

"It started that she was kind of a plain-Jane type, and was sick of her looks and her life and escaped to some island." Owen continued. "Only she wasn't known as Evelyn Gardner then. She had a German sounding name."

"Eva Grubb." Ginger said darkly.

"That's it." said Owen, snapping his fingers.

"She came to this very island." Ginger fumed.

"You don't say." Owen said.

"I do say." snapped Ginger. "She was upset about her appearance, so, Mary Ann and I made her gorgeous."

"Total glamour makeover, eh?" Owen asked.

"The whole nine yards." Ginger sputtered. "And what did she do to thank us? Go back to civilization and try to pass herself off as me in Hollywood. The nerve!"

"You should have seen her when the girls got through with her." said Gilligan. "She could have been Ginger's twin sister, if Ginger had a twin sister."

"Well, from what I heard, she received some psychiatric help and she's fine now." said Owen. "She grew her hair long and dark, got contact lenses, and went on to be an actress in her own right under the name Evelyn Gardner."

"Well, I still think she was miscast as Janet and as Miss Marlene." Ginger sniffed.

"Tell me about it." sighed Owen. "And she's miscast as my sweetheart off the screen too, so pay no mind to those fool gossip columnists. In fact, last I heard, she had a case of the sparks for Gordon Crane."

"They deserve each other." said Ginger.

"Tell me about it." said Owen.

"Does that mean, if they get married, his name will be Gordon Gardner?" Gilligan asked.

The skipper snorted and Owen laughed.


	11. Sweets, Sweethearts, and Mary Ann

"Oh, Gilligan, you and your silly remarks."

"Funny remarks." corrected Owen, winking at Gilligan.

"I'll be the judge of that." said the Skipper.

Later, as Owen rose to help Mary Ann clear away the lunch dishes, he turned to Mr. Howell.

"Listen, Mr. H." he said amiably. "Whenever we get off this island, I'm buying you a new golf club."

"Oh, that won't be necessary, Sir Owen, my boy." the millionaire answered, clearing his throat. "I have so many golf clubs, Arnold Palmer would be green with envy."

"No, Mr. Howell." said the actor. "I insist. I owe you a new club. It's the least I can do to make up for wrecking your old one."

"That is very generous of you, Sir Owen." said Mrs. Howell.

"Anything for a friend."

"You are a dear boy indeed, Sir Owen." said the society lady. She then took in the actor's casual tasteful attire of white chinos and a red polo. "And I must say, your dress sense has improved since your first time on the island. You took my advice and changed tailors."

Owen and Mrs. Howell burst out in laughter.

"Well, when someone gives me advice accompanied by a couple of swift whacks with the pieces of a broken golf club, something tells me I'd better take it."

Male movie star and millionaire's wife laughed again, this time joined by two attractive young woman and a youthful sailor.

In the late afternoon, Mary Ann set about baking her specialty - a coconut cream pie. The way to a man's heart and all that.

As she laid out her ingredients, she remembered the day, all those years back when a barbaric, brawny jungle man had come to the island and she attempted to make herself as ugly as possible. Today, in contrast, she had gone to great pains to make herself as beautiful and as tantalizing as could be. And speaking of being beautiful, Mary Ann thought it was kind of pathetic the way Miss Gorgeous with the long red hair and the list of Hollywood movie credits and the seductive, flirtatious ways was campaigning for Owen's heart. Surely he would be happier with a sweet, kind, helpful woman who could cook than someone like Ginger, who probably didn't even know how to prepare a packet of instant soup and would sooner style her hair than wash a dish.

As Mary Ann whipped up her pie crust, she reflected on her past romantic life. Since she was a young teen, she had attracted the attention of several appealing young gentlemen, but something always happened to lead to her and her boyfriend parting.

There was Marco Gambaro in her freshman and part of her sophomore year of high school. Tall, dark, clear-skinned and gorgeous, Marco always helped Mary Ann with her math assignments, (numbers were always her weak suit) shared his dessert with her at lunch, and they went ice skating every Saturday. For her fifteenth birthday, he presented her with a gold-toned slave bracelet, which she never took off even though it imparted a green cast to her wrist. The blow fell when Marco had told Mary Ann that his father was being transferred to Pittsburgh and he and his folks had to move away. Mary Ann had cried inconsolably for quite a while.

In the latter part of sophomore year, romance had found Mary Ann again in the person of transfer student Carlos Martinez, one grade ahead of her, athletic, handsome and charming. Marco Gambaro had become a childish memory and Carlos and Mary Ann became the school couple until the fateful day in Mary Ann's junior year that Carlos got expelled from school for cheating on a test. That had been the end of that, and Mary Ann had a broken heart from which she thought she'd never recover.

But recover she did, and the summer after she graduated, Mary Ann had fallen for Arthur Sands, an attractive, attentive young man whom her father hired to help on his farm. Mary Ann had thought he was definitely her ideal partner until the day came when he was arrested for shoplifting on Valentine's Day and it was revealed that the heart-shaped pink crystal ponytail fasteners he had gotten her as a gift were stolen. Tears had soaked Mary Ann's pillowcase every night for weeks.

Mary Ann's most recent boyfriend was a fellow by the name of Horace Higginbotham, the tall, thin, studious, bespectacled assistant reference librarian at her local library. They had gone out for three months and Mary Ann saw definite promise there until one evening when he broke a date claiming to have a cold, and later, at the local ice-cream parlor with her friends, she saw him kissing her cousin Jennifer. His explanation to Mary Ann? That he had only been dating her to get closer to Jennifer. Mary Ann had been really devastated. What a creep! They hadn't been together very long, but still, the potential had been there, so what upset her was the "might-have-been."

When Mary Ann had taken that tour on the Minnow, she had told her cruisemates about Horace as though she and he were still together. She had even been pretending to send him "notes" in a bottle that were, in reality, pieces of blank paper headed for no particular destination. Ginger had dated all those sexy male movie stars. The Howells had each other. The last thing she needed was to be questioned about why a friendly, caring, attractive, culinarily gifted young woman like her didn't have a sweetheart.

What was worse was that Mary Ann felt that she would never have a sweetheart until such a day as the castaways were rescued - if such a thing ever transpired. She feared that if they were never rescued, she would remain unpartnered for the rest of her life, and she really didn't think she would be happy with such a state of affairs. Forever was an awfully long time.

She hadn't the slightest romantic interest in any of the male castaways. She thought there was some possibility with Gilligan, but in the end, there was just no spark, despite Mrs. Howell's best attempts at matchmaking.

None of the male natives from nearby islands did anything for her, and as for the male visitors to the island, a lot of them were old enough to be her father, Dr. Balinkoff was too creepily sinister, the members of The Mosquitoes were all either married or they had girlfriends, and that surfer guy, Duke Williams, handsome though he was, had an ego bigger than both of his biceps combined!

There had been one exception. Tongo - or rather, Owen Lansing. Mary Ann had been so frightened that her hair nearly turned white when the "ape-man" had been chasing her around the "hut" that turned out to be an enclosure the men had been trapping him in (with her as the bait) but when she learned that he was an actor, she had found that whole incident somewhat exciting. She had began to find "Tongo" himself a little exciting, but much to her disappointment, he had left the island before she really had a chance to get to know him.

But now - now was her big chance. Now was her opportunity to get to know the real Owen. Just as soon as she baked up some sweet bait.


	12. Ginger, Tongo and Owen

Gilligan was out collecting insects and plants to feed to his new pet lizard when he caught a whiff of something sweet and delectable. His mouth watered in anticipation of one of his gingham-clad friend's homemade dessert delicacies. He came running to where the pretty brunette castaway was setting her specialty out to cool.

"Mmmm, coconut cream pie a la Mary Ann." he said. "Don't mind if I do."

He reached for the pastry only to receive a light slap on the wrist from the country girl.

"You do and you're through." she admonished with a toss of her ponytail.

A confused look crossed the sailor's face.

"I don't understand, Mary Ann." he said. "Why would you bake a pie for me if you don't want me to eat it?"

"Because this pie isn't for you, you silly boy." Mary Ann said. "It's for Owen."

Gilligan's face fell.

"Why would you bake a coconut cream pie for Owen and not for me if you know that your coconut cream pie is my favorite?"

Mary Ann blushed.

"Because Owen is the new face around here."

Gilligan bridled at that.

"Well, old faces like coconut cream pie, too."

"Oh, Gilligan." Mary Ann shot back, taking her apron off and pretending to whack her sailor friend with the apron tie.

Meanwhile, in the girls' hut, Ginger had a plan. She had changed into her leopard-print dress and taken down her hair so it fell to her back in a curtain of fiery satin. She then sashayed over to the supply hut and rummaged until she found what she was looking for - the radio. Little Miss Tidy must have put it in there after lunch when she cleaned up. Probably trying to impress Owen.

It was kind of sad, really, the way Mary Ann was trying to ingratiate herself with him. The saddest part of all was that she was under the impression that he gave two hoots about all that Susie Homemaker stuff. Guys like that didn't care about that sort of thing. They wanted a woman who was _**exciting**_. Mary Ann was a helpful, sweet-natured girl, and she was decent-enough-looking - she wasn't Frankenstein's twin sister or anything - but when one came right down to it, she was about as exciting as a bowl of cornflakes.

Exciting. It suddenly occurred to Ginger what really attracted her to the new castaway. He was the first guy she had been truly excited about in her life as an actress. She had gone on social outings with many a handsome actor or influential movie-industry bigwig because they could help her career or they looked good together, but Owen Lansing was the first male she had found exciting on a personal level since she was a teenager.

Ginger's mind flashed back to that night in the cave, when "Tongo" had so ardently pursued her. She had been frightened, but underneath the fright was a feeling she couldn't quite explain at the time.

She had told the Professor she had not been attracted to the wild man but something primal within her had said something different. This side of her had gotten an odd sort of thrill from the display of untamed masculine aggression. However, the civilized, self-preserving side of her had done its best to squelch the tingling glow that had spread deep within the pit of the heart of the castaway actress.

When the brutish jungle lord was revealed to be an actor and the threat of danger was taken out of the equation, the feelings of excitement had made themselves fully known and Ginger felt that the actor was possibly a man worth getting to know as himself, outside of his character. Unfortunately, he had left the island before that could happen, and that had been that.

Until now. Now, opportunity was beating down Ginger's door, and she was going to answer it in spades. She imagined herself in that moonlit cavern once more, daintily sipping coconut juice and being romanced by Owen. Not Tongo this time, but Owen, as himself, with winks, flowers and flattering remarks replacing grunts, grabs, and "me, Tongo, you, Ginger." Although - maybe if he acted like Owen but _**dressed up as**_ Tongo . . . the mere thought made the redheaded movie star tingle all over.

With unbridled enthusiasm and ardor, Ginger practiced some of her dance moves from two of the movies she had been in, _**Belly Dancers of Bali-Bali **_and _**Rain Dancers of Rango-Rango. **_If the rain dancing really did cause rain, she'd be nice and dry and cozy in that cave, with Owen's strong arms around her.__


End file.
